A crackdown on unsafe building sites in Crace has halted six projects and issued more than 40 slaps on the wrist as part of an ACT-wide safety blitz.
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ACT Work Safety Commissioner Mark McCabe has warned residential construction businesses to not grow complacent about safety in light of the most recent investigation.
WorkSafe inspectors visited 27 sites in the Gungahlin suburb where they issued six prohibition notices and a further 44 improvement notices.
Mr McCabe said the issues identified in the Crace crackdown included unsecure site fencing, a lack of required signage, fall and trip hazards, insufficient storage and the movement and disposal of waste.
"Some of these may seem like little things but many major incidents have little failures at their source," he said.
"We see this time and time again in workplace incidents, where a sequence of what individually will appear to be minor failures, when combined, leads to severe injuries or worse."
Mr McCabe said WorkSafe inspectors now investigated building sites on weekends as well as weekdays.
The ACT Government allocated additional inspectors following the release of the Getting Home Safely report in late 2012, which identified a number of areas for improvement in the local construction industry.
"We are using those resources to increase and provide better focus for our presence on worksites," Mr McCabe said.
"Where significant breaches of the law are identified, we are also seeing significant improvement in the time taken to bring these matters to finality.
"While we have a firm enforcement approach, we would much rather secure compliance through education. When education is not enough, however, WorkSafe ACT takes a strong and proactive approach to ensuring compliance with the ACT's safety laws. My message to construction businesses is to get educated, not regulated."
